I thought that “beer” would make a fun topic for the weekly pub trivia challenge I have the privilege of hosting. While looking on line for tidbits, I came across the word “Cenosillicaphobia: the fear of an empty glass.” My BS detectors were set into full alert, and sure enough, I can’t seem to find it in an on-line dictionary.

Anyone ever come across this term in their scholarly - or happy hour - meanderings?

Even if it were correctly spelled (i.e., consistently with the roots that would give the approximate meaning imputed), I doubt you would find it in any dictionary, with the possible exception of anyone-can-play sites like Urban Dictionary; such fanciful phobia names are common but lexicographers don’t waste time on them. The -sillica- is probably intended to be -silica- (quartz, but with the intended meaning “glass"), and ceno- would be from Greek kenos, empty (as in cenotaph, literally an empty tomb). You will get some hundreds of Google hits for “cenosilicaphobia” (although the silly-looking -sillica- version gets a couple thousand).

Edit: I suppose it’s possible that whoever invented the word actually intended it to be “cenocylicaphobia” (from kylix, a drinking vessel) and the word got even more mangled than I originally assumed. But this gets no Google hits at all.

Tsk - “zymo” is wrong, that means yeast (enzymes were named as the things found “in yeast"). “Beer”, I need hardly say, in ancient Greek, was zythos. And isn’t the order of elements wrong? So on that basis, and taking Dr T’s suggestion about kylix I’d suggest, tentatively, cenozythocylicaphobia for that moment when you look in the fridge and realise you and your mates finished off the last bottles the previous night. In the same line, how about hemicenozythocylicaphobia, as the technical description of those people for whom the glass is always half-empty, and who are even now worrying about what might happen in 2012 ...

just this minute joined your club ,decided to after browsing some old posts and came across the word cenosillicaphobia to which nobody new of a dictionary that contained it ,until now that is .A few years ago i bought a copy of ‘Jarrolds dictionary of difficult words’ that is were you will find it and many other gems .just thought i’d let you know .thanks